Aya
Face the Music
Published on 11. February 2025
Book
Hardback
108 pages
978-1-77046-752-1 (ISBN)
Description
Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie s world-renowned and critically acclaimed series about 80s life in the Ivory Coast continues with Aya: Face the Music. After getting thrown in jail for organizing a student housing protest, Aya must grapple with the aftermath of her decisions. Her friends don t have it much easier. Her classmate Cyprien has been unconscious since police violently broke up their demonstration, and his family can barely scrape together funds for treatment. Her dear friend Albert, last seen passing out at dinner with his family, awakes in the countryside in the clutches of a healer his father has hired to pray his gay away. In France, Albert s ex-paramour Inno agrees to enter into a fake marriage with his friend Sabine with surprising results. And back in Abidjan, embattled starlet Bintou must find a way to capitalize on the public s newfound sympathy after her house is burned down by an angry mob. Translated by Abidjan-based writer and activist Edwige Renee Dro, this contemporary classic of Ivorian literature bridges the gap between the past and present, proving that no matter how much things may change, we change with them too.
Reviews / Votes
[Aya] is full of everyday heroes, and topping the list is Aya herself, a young woman navigating the delights and obstacles of early adulthood in the West African nation of Ivory Coast.' Elian Peltier, The New York Times. 'Abouet s brilliantly illustrated series about the lives of three friends in Abidjan is as funny and sharp as ever [with] feminist sass and distinctive wit.' The Guardian. 'Oubrerie's style animates both the broadly funny and painfully grave moments in Abouet's rhythmic slice-of-life storytelling.' The Washington Post.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Montreal
Canada
Illustrations
Full-colour illustrations throughout
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
352 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77046-752-1 (9781770467521)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2025
Drawn & Quarterly
€14.49
Available for download
Persons
Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 1971. At the age of twelve, she was sent with her older brother to study in France under the care of a great uncle. She lives in Romainville, a suburb of Paris, where she works as a legal assistant and writes novels she has yet to show to publishers. Aya is her first comic. It taps into Abouet s childhood memories of Ivory Coast in the 1970s, a prosperous, promising time in that country s history, to tell an unpretentious and gently humorous story of an Africa we rarely see spirited, hopeful, and resilient. Clement Oubrerie was born in Paris in 1966. After a stint in art school he spent two years in the United States doing a variety of odd jobs, publishing his first children s books and serving jail time in New Mexico for working without papers. Back in France, he went on to a prolific career in illustration. With over forty children s books to his credit, he is also cofounder of the 3D animation studio Station OMD.